VIDEO: Robots will take more than half a million builders’ jobs by 2040, warn construction experts

Robots will take more than half a million builders’ jobs by 2040, warn construction experts

Human bricklayers, labourers and painters and decorators will be a rare sight in two decades' time, claims Mace report

By Margi Murphy

31st October 2017

 The semi-automated mason or SAM for short can lay bricks six times quicker than a human, its maker Construction Robotics

VIDEO

How a bricklaying robot will build homes of the future

blob:https://www.thesun.co.uk/fec2e5d7-e670-42ca-ba5c-139ee613211b

edited by kcontents

ROBOTS could eliminate almost one in three construction jobs over the next two decades, experts predict.

Mace, an international consultancy and building company, claimed that technological advances will mean human builders are replaced by machines.

The number of jobs for bricklayers is set to tumble thanks to advances in robotic technology

It said 600,000 of the current 2.2 million positions across the industry could be automated by 2040.

Brickies are most at risk, with the 73,000 bricklayers on British building sites expected to fall to just 4,300.

Carpenters, internal fitters and labourers will tumble as well as painters and decorators, the study forecasted.

The report, titled "Moving To Industry 4.0" stated: "The construction sector is going to look very different in a decade or two – and so is its workforce.

"Are we going to be ready for it? Or will we fall behind?"

Earlier this year news of the "brickiebot" arriving in the UK threatened thousands of builders' jobs.

The Semi-Automated Mason - or SAM for short - can lay a stonking 3,000 bricks a day in comparison with the builder's average of 500.

That's six times more bricks than the average worker daily.

The creation of New York-based Construction Robotics, it has already replaced humans on a handful of sites across America.

One builder helps feed the bricks into the machine, which are picked up by the robotic arm, slathered in mortar and placed on the wall.

But it will still need human supervision to watch over it.

It's made up of a conveyor-belt, mortar pump and robotic arm.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/4806327/robots-will-take-more-than-half-a-million-builders-jobs-by-2040/

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